The Lost Story of Zane
by Demitra Florentini
Summary: I think many of us were a little reluctant to believe with the medical advances at the time of the story that Zane could just... DIE. But if he didn't really, and the story had gone on the same way it had, what happened to him? Here is his story...
1. Kicked

Kicked

"HIRO!" She cried, bolting down the hall way at inhuman speed,"YOU COME OUT HERE RIGHT NOW OR YOUR HEAD WILL GET A REVESE MIND-RAIN TREATMENT- WITHOUT THE LESIONS!"

Sigh. Why did Lynn-Senpai have to come here? what is her problem? She's so famous, anyway. Shouldn't she be rambling on about how fasion-missing Nana Love was, like every other normal person in the world? That was just it. Lynn wasn't normal. She took advantage of the mind-rain and her brains to rewire herself- and the city in the process. She managed to trick the doctors into giving her the whole special operation from Prettitime. She was a genuine bad girl. She ran the biggest clique in the city, with so many hierarchy ranks it was hard to tell where you stood in the grad scheme of things. In fact, every Major city around the world had members of her clique. Of course, she had her top 17 favorites - the Cutters- and the rest of everyone else were Crims, named after the famous Youngblood clique from years ago. The Cutters ran the shibang- one in each city to govern the cliquees and Lynn and her boyfriend, Kairo, were the leaders. This held their face-ranks at a steady 3 and 5 in the city and 9 and 11 in the world.

"HIRO!" She screeched with her hawk voice, sharp as a three-hundered-klick wind, "I HAVE A MATTER HACKER HERE SO IF YOU DON'T WANT THE WARDENS TO COME YOU HAD BETTER OPEN UP! NOW!"

"Lynn, chill out", Kairo said as he kept an even pace with her incredible speed down the hall. He had had the special operation, too. This was one of the reasons never, or so everyone thought but turns out the right word for the context is "rarely" lost their tempers.

Lynn froze in her steps as she took breaths of chilling, conditioned air. As she tried to calm her self down before facing Hiro, Kairo wsa busy trying to get Ren to open the door. Turns out he was so hung over after Hiro's top 100 hit party, he didn't have enough sense not to. Lucky for them, kairo had a knack for calm-making Lynn.

The door opened wide and Lynn and Kairo stepped in to face Hiro and ren. Why didn't Lynn like Hiro? Let's just say the world of kicks is full of karma- what goes around comes around- and it was Hiro's turn to get hit. Ren blushed as she walked b. Her jet black hair with electric-neon highlights that glowed in the dark, black eyes only illuminated by eye screens and her drift just above the floor were enchanting. Being a very serious hoverball player, she wore her rig everywhere. Unlike most though, she took it a step further and had surge done to attach it to her skeleton. she could fly anywhere effortlessly now, although she still loved to hoverboard.

Lynn's nostrils flared as she smelled Ren's attraction. She restrained the effort to smirk, but smiling without worthy reason was demeaning. She winked and floated by her fellow tech-head friend. Kairo smelled it to. He was used to his girlfriend being checked out, she being one of the most famous people in the city, but where Ren gave her that look suspicion still ran through his bones. he just told himself all they were were childhood friends. He placed his hand on her shoulder, feeling her heat flow into his hand. Her closeness was comforting.

Lynn went off on Hiro"What was up with your last feed? those pics and footage of me losing those uglies' hover cams by diving in the lake is so unpopular-making. They're going to hate me now!" Hiro just shook his head. "You should thank me. Your face rank almost went over Nana Love's!" Lynn felt her waist-long hair stiffen at the mention of that name. "Who cares about that fashion missing pretty, anyway?" Lynn glared. She was no beauty queen and never would be. Her flash tattoos, hawk eyes, lengthy yet muscular figure, and the way she slinked through the crowds was more icy than pretty-making. She liked herself that way. It's raised the stakes of life. You can't live without risks, and only Kairo knew how many risks she had actually taken.


	2. Crashed

Crashed

"Look," Hiro said,"If it makes you feel any better I didn't put up all the footage."

Lynn gave him a questioning look. "I'll play the entire video," Hiro sighed. What did Aya get him into? She said her new clique didn't like kickers, but when she gave him a story like this he should have known something was up.

Kairo ordered up some fried rice out of the hole in the wall for Lynn and himself and the sat down to watch.(It was her favorite food, and hopefully it would calm her some more) He set his fingers on her arm and was tapping in the rusty silent communication form of morse code. When he got her attention, he let his skintenna carry his voice.

"Hiro's little sister's name is Aya. Here is her picture." Kairo sent her Aya's feed over the skintenna network. Coincidence? I think not. It was the same girl who joined Jai's Sly Girls the other day. Lynn and her didn't need there story kicked too soon.

"Well, is it her?" Kairo asked. "yea," Lynn replied'"But at least she doesn't know Jai is a Cutter."

Kairo let his hand off her and they sat down on Hiro's bed to watch the missing parts of the feed.

There was Lynn on her hoverboard, speeding through town like a brain-missing special. She even looked like one, then Lynn remembered that the experiments made her one. Worse even than Tally Youngblood's surge. She Shook the thought and went back to the feed.

Dodging people, buildings, trees, and hovercars, she tried to shake the fifty hovercams following her. She rose up into the air over the lake, just beyond where her magnets failed then disabled them. She was on the free-fall straight toward the water, all the hovercams following. Then WHACK! Lynn hit the water with a slap, followed by a ton of hovercams and something that wasn't on the other feeds. A boy and a hoverboard falling after her. A closer look revealed Frizz Mizuno.

"Crap!" Lynn shouted as the rest of the footage rolled. It was a close up of her flying away backward."Hope you took some good shots," She said to the girl with the only water-proof cam, which just happened to be Aya,"Cause your the only kicker with this story!" The camera looked back at the lake, showing a ton of broken hovercams rising up. But no Frizz.

Lynn sighed and beat her head against the wall. She liked Frizz. Maybe even a little more than a friend. She shook the thought from her head. Frizz was some psycho Radical Honesty not technically bubblehead. Kairo had always been there for her. Even with the experimental surge. He was all she ever needed. No more. No less.

Sensing her pain with his special experiment senses, he laid a hand on her. Lynn started to glow a soft blue and glared at the hysterically laughing Hiro. Suddenly, he couldn't move, more the less breathe. Then, Kairo started to glow the same as Lynn but in a blood-red light. They were putting there unknown government experiment skills out to flaunt more than they were supposed to. The counter-surge developed during the Diego war.

Kairo squeezed hard on Lynn's shoulder. and her glow faded from the unexpected attack. Hiro was released, and who could now breathe opened his mouth to speak, but Kairo beat him to it. His razor-voice cutting like knives he said,"If anyone hears about this, next time you won't be so lucky as to live." Then, With the non-conscience Lynn in tow, he strutted out the door. He turned and said,"We don't want to hurt you, but we will if we have to".


	3. Haunted

Haunted

Lynn opened her eyes. Extremely blurred, she could still make out the forms of her room and Kairo watching feeds on her wall screen. She dared a glance at the clock.3:00 A.M.- totally stayed with her this entire time.

"oh,"Kairo took his eyes off the feed,"You're awake. Finally. I was getting worried."

"You know using my aura tires me, especially when you have to go and drain me like that. Sheesh." Lynn said groggily, with an annoyed look on her face. "Well next time I'll just let you kill him," Kairo said jokingly. He let out a yawn. He was tired, too. Their special surge allowed them to go days upon weeks without sleep, but they'd gone midnight mag-lev surfing a lot lately.

"Do you want me to sleep over?" He asked. Lynn couldn't help but to stare at him for a moment as she gathered her thoughts. His black-blue hair was dyed with calligraphy ink from back before the mind-rain when black hair was banned. Even now, he refused to get it done properly saying that it was a sign of his rebellious nature. His black hawk eyes were swollen and glazed over from sleep depravation. He looked so much cuter when he was tired, but Lynn would never let him know or he'd get unhappy-making surge to fix it.

"No," She said,"You go home and get a good night's sleep. Don't worry about me." "You sure?" Kairo asked. She nodded. He could tell by the look in her eyes she was going to crash any minute. "Alright," He kissed her good night and started on his way home. At least the rain stopped.

Lynn yawned, shut off the lights, and dozed off.

That was when the nightmares started. Memories of that horrible night in Diego. Lynn couldn't remember the running away from the collapsing town hall that well. Only the pain when she woke up with a smashed face, lying on the burning sidewalk. 3rd degree burns, broken limbs, concussions and fear were not very comfort-making.

She went into the hospital and that's when she saw him. The only room in line for open and she needed it. A scary girl, about her age but severely surged up was fawning over the body of a dying boy. She was a special, and after listening in a minute, it hit her. This was Tally Youngblood and the boy in the bed was Zane.

The doctors were trying to explain to Tally what was going on. Zane was going to die and there was nothing anyone could do about it- that was what Tally got out of could have been further from the truth. She left the hospital without hearing the other option.

They took Lynn into the room, ready to unplug refused and told the doctors he was more important because someone loved him. The doctors kept saying she would die in vain, because he was going to kick the bucket soon anyway.

Lynn began to sob,"Isn't there anything you can do?" The doctors glanced at each other with cockeyed smiles. "We were hoping you'd ask". Lynn swallowed hard. Then, one especially scary doctor spoke,"We're developed a special operation of our own here in Diego. A surge designed to counter that of the foreign cities times seven, plus some new tricks of our own. The chances of survival are five to a hundred, but if it goes through you'll both live and be the strongest humans to ever walk the face of theEarth. Strong enough to wipe out twenty foreign specials with out breaking a sweat."

"Strength is not what I seek," Lynn took Zane's hand tightly and kissed him on the cheek, "It's purpose in life." "You don't even know this boy and yet your willing to risk your own life for him?" the doctors asked stunned. "What better way to go," Lynn said," Than to sacrifice one's life for another's love. That girl will not die with a heavy heart." With that, Lynn signed the informed consent papers for the experimental operation on her and Zane.


	4. Alias

Alias

The doctors laid Lynn and Zane in the operating room. They took one final look at the slip of informed consent. The name Aelita was signed at the bottom of the page."Well Miss Aelita", That same strange doctor said,"I hope your ready the become a part of Special Circumstances."

"Zane!" Lynn let out a sharp cry as she woke up and bolted up right. "Sh...", Kairo was sitting cross-legged at the foot of her bed. He ran his fingers through her hair."It's just me, Aelita." "Lynn", she corrected. "I don't think laying off the aliases once in a while is going to give us away", Kairo said.

"Okay, Zane", Lynn said, wide awake from her night terrors. Zane smiled at the use of his real name. It gave him comfort to know there was still someone in the world he could put his trust in. His smile faded as he remembered why he had come.

Aelita was ordering breakfast. Just some coffee and some bread. It was an old habit of Zane's to skip breakfast and not eat much for any other meal, and after three years this routine had rubbed off on Aelita. Although she finally got him to eat a little bit in the morning.

"You were having nightmares again, weren't you?" Zane said, giving her a worried look. She set down the coffee and nodded."Memories of that night in Diego. I still can't shake the sight of you on your death bed. And that girl. So mad at her self I thought she was going to commit suicide, or kill someone else. That's why I had to give myself up. I couldn't let her live with that pain." Tears welled up in her eyes, but the surge wouldn't let her cry anymore. Sometimes she wished she could just take that part away. It was good to cry sometimes.

Zane read her thoughts and put his arms around her and looked her in the eye."That's over now. That's why I love you. Not just because you gave your life for me, but because you did it for Tally. Don't worry about her. She can't truly love anyone more than she can tell the whole truth." Aelita could feel him wanting to cry to. That pain welled up inside them had to be let go. She pulled lose of this loving arms and went over to the window balcony.

She assumed her perch on the safety railing like a bird of prey. When she showed her emotion, the animal instincts en ground in her from the genetic surge became pronounced. She stood up on the edge of the railing, arms out wide like a bird, and closed her eyes. She took deep breaths and calmed her self. The morning air was reviving.

Kairo walked over to the balcony. (being outside now, they had to go back to the use of aliases) "Why do you have to do this so early in the morning? It's so nervous-making Lynn-wa.", Kairo said as he stared at her. "I have to let these feelings go. This a pretty bubbly way to do it. I won't last waiting to go mag-lev surfing tonight", Lynn grinned. She tried to push the worried expression of Kairo's face away. He just shook his head.

"Your just like Tally-wa", He said, looking into her eyes, pleading her. "Is that my fault your with me?" Lynn said,"You just have quite the taste in girls". She gave him a wink and with that released backward off the balcony into a thirteen story free fall.


	5. FreeFall

Free-fall

Lynn felt the world rushing past as she most eire scream anyone had ever heard. It was the squeal of joy and pain of a teenage girl mingled with the unnatural razor-sharp voice of a hawk. Her body was changing, too as she slipped further down the evolutionary scale the further she fell. Her long, flowing black hair stiffened and grouped into feathers which spread all along her body. Her hands and feet sprouted long, needle pointed, steel strength talons. All the while her body shrunk and stretched to match the contours of a bird's body. Her facial features spread out and sharpened to a diamond solid black beak. For the final touch, her out stretched arms slid back to her shoulder blades, curved backward and her skin stretched and grew feathers to form a pair of wings. Lynn broke her fall with her new found flight and skimmed the Earth softly before bounding back up to her balcony.

"What's the matter?" Lynn teased back at Kairo,"Can't catch the birdie, pussy cat?"

"Oh, you've got it coming for you now!" He said, taking a running leap off the balcony railing. Lynn was all the more thankful no one woke up at dawn as Kairo's battle cry was rounded off into the low growl of a jungle cat. His hands grew and slid around in the shoulder sockets to leg position, my claws poised to kill at Lynn. Black and orange hair grew up from his out stretched paws down to his new flicking tail. His deadly sharp fangs and insanity-ridden eyes didn't change much from his special human form.

Lynn sprang up out of his grasp's range just in time to not be pulled down to enjoy that THUD when he hit the ground. I thought cat's always land on their feet," Lynn giggled. "Not from thirteen stories," Kairo purred with delight, seeing that at least her pain was gone. He would feel that hit tomorrow, though, special or not. She would get hers at tonight's hover-ball game. "Besides,"Kairo continued,"I'm not technically a cat, anyway."

"Shut up," Lynn said, rolling her raven eyes,"You're starting to sound like Frizz. Come on." She Glided over shuffle mansion, with Kairo slinking along in the shadows enlarged by the half-risen sun, only a pace or so behind. They headed out toward the wild beyond the building limits just as the city was beginning to awake.


	6. Wild Memories

Wild Memories

Wild Memories

Lynn and Kairo reached their private little cliff just as the sun finished crawling its way over the horizon. Lynn dove down to the edge, changing back to human form feet up. Her feathers folded back into her flowing black and neon-blue hair, but most were carried toward the sea with the wind. Toward the wild with David and Tally. Except for a little Marilynn Monroe moment with her black smart matter night gown, she lighted down on her bare feet with perfect grace.

At least the genetic mishap was good for SOMEthings. (like an incognito morning escape, although Lynn's free fall defeated the purpose entirely) She and Kairo had been injected with the genes of a hawk and a tiger. It was supposed to be for survival instinct purposes only, but a lab accident had engrained too much, apparently. That was the price of a voluntary experimental operation, though. She thought it was worth it, whether they were were-animals from pre-Rusty myth or not.

Lynn sighed as Kairo de-morphed and sat up next to her and they swung their legs over the edge. They didn't need to say a word knowing they both felt the strange beaconing of unwanted memories boiling to the surface it their veins. The pain kept them alert as they embraced the call of the wild.

Then Zane (dropping the aliases in the wild) broke the uncanny silence,"Do you think we'll ever find Tally-Wa?" Aelita wrapped her arm around his shoulder and looked him in the eye,"I don't think. I know. And if it makes you feel better, I have a gut feeling that time we've both waited 4 years for is going to come very soon. You know my guts are almost always right with things like this." She smiled, but Zane still looked distant and depressed.

"I know it's hard for you Zane-La. For god sakes it's hard for me! She's with my twin brother, David, after all." Aelita still felt a ping run through her every time she said that name. She had seen him only once before, as a littlie. But she had pictures and memories of her family, and that's all she needed to push on. She'd show her aunt and uncle and cousins. She was more than just that red-headed step child. She felt it in her bones. And her purpose she knew now was in Zane. Her reason to live She refused to let him suffer. Not without her. Did he not know she was in pain, too? Her love from the Prettytime was dead, at least his was still alive. Brain-missing or brain-warped, which ever term fit better, or not. She felt like she would vomit as the name and mental image of his face ran through her head. Hikaru...

"It's not about that," Zane shook his head. "I know that. But I also know well and good that there are still feelings inside to for her." Aelita said, Hiding her own pain with a sudden frustration... or was it jealousy? He was going to see his old love again. Her Hikaru was gone forever. What made it hardest was Zane. She couldn't help but love him more than she had ever loved Hikaru, yet she still couldn't forget... "But-", He started, but Aelita cut him off."You should never forget them, but just let go. There's a difference", she said half speaking to herself, half to Zane,"If you can't do it for yourself or me, than at least do it for her."

"We need to find them before Tally or I can truly let go and move on. I know she's having it just as hard as I am," Zane knew. She had to feel it. The inability to move on. The longing to be together. The guilt of falling in love again. How could he have the right to fall in love when Tally thought he was dead. But Tally had left him. Aelita had risked her life more than Tally would have ever done, even with her Pretty mind. She thought her way out to. But there was something about Aelita that was just so... perfect... Something that made his love feel so right. maybe it was that understanding in her, beings she was going through the same thing. That she needed him the way she needed her...

Aelita stopped trying to catch his gaze and looked at the cat puke pink sun rise. She hated pink. "Don't forget that I have my own past to work out. My family... Hikaru...", Then somehow she just lost it,"YOU HAVE IT GOOD! AT LEAST YOU'LL SEE TALLY-WA AGAIN! HIKARU'S GONE FOREVER!" She looked at Zane, aware of how much she'd hurt him. Somehow, the tears had come out. Surge or not, there they were pouring out on to the mountain. "All I want is for you to stop acting like it's all you. I can help. The only way to get through this together. Hikaru and Tally... They've moved on. I don't think our love will hurt them. I want you to learn to trust and rely on me the way I do you... You're not that special, to be the only one with problems, and I'm here to carry you when it feels like you are the only one. All I want is you to love me. Without any guilt or pain or regret. Please..."

Zane swept her up in her arms,"Aelita..." He was crying to. Somehow the angels let them. For real pain was worth tears."If only you could know how much I do love you." He held her out and brought his lips up so caress hers. Aelita basked in the warmth and let her arms fall around his neck as he held her to him, hands digging into her back with special strength. It was going to be a good day.


	7. Alley Cats

Ally Cats

The sun had set. Unlike most days, though it didn't have Lynn on her balcony to keep it company. She was in her room in Shuffle Mansion, the three-room two-floor tech head and wilderness enthusiast paradise. The floor of her room was a giant clear blue pong, lined with steel for lifter to push off from and was decked out to the nines like the rest of her room with exotic plants from every corner of the globe. Trees grew up out of the crystal clear water and up to the 30 foot high ceiling. Because of her embedded hover ball rig, the water was not a problem and she gracefully glided over it. With the addition of her being an avid hover-boarder as well, she wore her belly sensor and crash bracelets everywhere, which made the room all the more easy to maneuver. Her "room" part of her room has a levitating tree house style rig a story over the pond, yet just below the branches of the trees.

Her being a total tech-head, she even designed artificial intelligent animals to inhabit her tame wilderness habitat. The koi and other creatures of the pond were all real and so were some of the birds, but most of the birds, squirrels, bugs, and other little woodland creatures were robotic. Lynn also had a trained python and a black cat for pets, too. The cat had a little trouble getting around, but used the enormous lily pads, used for chairs and step stones designed for visitors with the lack of flying ability. It all worked out well, though beings as Lynn very rarely had any guests allowed in other than Kairo who could fly like her.

Metallica Blared as she got pumped up for her vicious hover ball game in about two hours. People teased her (pointing out especially Toshi Banana, anti-mind rain activist) about listening to the violent Rusty music, rumored to be on of their main drives of war, but she said it was good to psych you into being read to beat people up out on a hover ball field. And she was going to need all the pumping up she could get for tonight's game. She was playing her arch-rivals, Severna Park. She finished putting on her black steel-alloy plated hover ball uniform (yes, you needed all the protection you could get from people ramming into you at 60 kilcks an hour in their own steel uniforms) with the number 27 painted in a brilliant silver on the breast plate as Kairo pinged in to walk with her to the game.

It was a gorgeous evening. The suns last rays had just flicked away and the moon shined down full with all it's brilliance. To bad Lynn was to special-minded at the moment to focus on anything but the game ahead of her. She flared her nostrils, hoping to whiff that wild smell of beyond the city, but could only fell the stench of urban society. It was alright though. She didn't need her full strength to win tonight.

"Lynn Kataki?" A voice called from behind them. Lynn whipped her head around. A Severna Park jock and avid hover ball super fan. "Is that you?" He asked in an suspicious tone, full knowing the answer.

"You'd better believe it", Lynn said, even with Kairo shaking his head no. They didn't need any trouble. She continued anyways,"All time hover ball leading scorer in the flesh!"

"Good", He smirked as more people with steel bars and other weapon-making objects appeared out of the near by allies,"Cause it's our job to take you out of tonight's game."

He ran at Lynn as fast as he could, which to her was about as good as a snails pace. He swung the lead pipe at her and she snapped her arm out and caught it. With a toothy special circumstances smile, she tore it from his week grasp, snapped it in two like a toothpick, and flung it to the roof of a mansion three blocks down. As the fan stared dazed at her nonchalant superhuman strength, she took two fingers and struck him swift and hard on the temple of his head, Knocking him out cold.

The others proceeded to charge her, even though she could smell their intense fear. Kairo, who couldn't resist a good ally fight, stood up against her back. She grabbed his arm, letting her skintenna carry her voice,"Do we have time," she said. "Depends", he shrugged,"How long will this take us?" "Three minutes", she replied swiftly, not needing the slightest thought,"Five tops." "We got time. I'd say one more minutes than we'll need," He smiled and turned on his satellite-hacked hovercam disabler. They didn't want the wardens to catch this little episode.

Another fan rushed at Lynn and she sprang back on one leg like a littlie playing hopscotch. She pinched his pressure points, crippling his arm. Then she landed a clean blow to the face, knocking him clean out as well. Two people were coming up behind her with lead pipes, but Kairo pinched their nerves at the top of their spinal chord, which would have killed them had he not been so well trained, but this just left them out cold on the pavement like the other four Ally Cats he had just taken care of.

Lynn yawned and decided that she was pumped enough for this game. She gave kairo a silent nod, and he understood her silent, unspoken gestures all too well.

Like a flash, they bolted so fast they were little more than a blur to the five remaining fans. They struck each one on the pressure points so hard they fell to the ground paralyzed immediately.

Lynn smirked and she and Kairo continued on their way to the game, leaving thirteen knocked out Severna Park Ally Cats in their wake. She was ready for tonight's game.


	8. Hover Ball

Hover Ball

After her extremely long and praising introduction, the green light pinged on on the levi-platform and Lynn dove off the edge in a routine and nonchalant way. She free fell down to the packed stadium awaiting her far bellow. Unlike most players, she didn't use her hover ball rig to help her land. She just splatted hard on the ground, although it didn't phase her special strength at all, and still managed to look like a malicious carnivore stalking it's prey. She stood out like a sore thumb with her above pretty committee- supposed "capable by surge" height. Plus, she looked anorexic and ripped at the same time with her starved skinny body and no hover ball lifters which made her immense muscular form more pronounced.

The crowd roared as she strutted into the captain's circle. Eden Maru, captain of the Severna Park Falcons, The Twilight District Bruin's rivals. Her eyes grew wide at the site of Lynn. She had sent the meanest toughest Severna Park Ally Cats in history and here she was, well and good. Scarier yet, She didn't even seem the slightest bit phased.

Lynn took Eden's hand and almost squeezed the blood out of it. Eden jerked it away and swallowed hard, unable to look her in the eye. What would she do to her? She gathered her courage and dared a glance up at the eyes that sent shivers down everyone's spine. Eyes surged to induce fear into the hearts of all who dared cross her path.

"Tell your Ally Cat friends I thanked them for the visit. That is, after they can learn their name over again," Lynn said with a razor voice that sheered Eden's thoughts and sank into her inner being. She began to shake. Lynn knew she had sent the gangsters. She was really going to get it. Lynn could smell the fear that arose inside her as she spoke to her. No one lied to Lynn and was sane enough afterwards to tell the tale.

"I have quite the surprise for you tonight. Watch out, my little..." She paused choosing her words carefully,"Special Circumstance." She flashed her most demeaning special smile and paced away to her position on the field. Left wing, same as Eden.

The whistle shrieked and the crowed roared as Lynn sped at almost the speed of sound toward the steel ball. Two Falcons were preparing to sandwich her, but she batted the ball up and dodged them with a mid-air 360 pirouette. They hit each other with a smack and Lynn let out a slight chuckle. As the ball fell back toward her, she hammered the ball almost knocking the keeper's arm clean off as it sunk into the back of the net, levitating 200 meters over the see of fans below.

Lynn picked out Kairo sitting with the cutters dead center of the bruin super fan stadium section, shouting Lynn-Praising cheers. Fans could be so brain-missing, worshiping someone almost that most of them hardly knew. Kairo was understandable, though. Besides, she just broke them world record for fastest hover ball goal. Not even 13 seconds into the game and the immortal Lynn had put another feather in her cap. She sighed with the thought that none of them knew her real story but Kairo. She did a vain, celebratory flight back to kick off stance as the crowed erupted louder than she thought possible. She smiled.

Needless to say, this set the pace for the match. Lynn scored 19 more goals, not to mention 22 assists she had for other players. She dodged, ducked, dipped, dove, and dodged through the other players on the field, practically scoring at will. She beat people up left and right, but not before they had rattled her cage good.

At the start of the second half, she had the game sealed up for a Twilight District Victory. Although some how she had managed to convince herself she was having the worst game of her life. She shook her head. Next up, Eden Maru. She stole the ball with ease from the left-half and then winged it with all her strength at Eden. Luckily she was more than a half kilometer away on the other side of the field or it might have killed her. The blow was still forceful enough to throw her into the invisi-wall electric barrier surrounding the field. It also gave her quite the concussion and a nice shiner. Her brain was pretty jarred.

Lynn wasn't finished, though. She was going to show no mercy and get revenge for everything Eden had ever plagued her with, which was a lot of pain to say it lightly. She sped over to the thought-missing Eden and let her eyes spear through her skull and thoughts. "I don't want to hurt you, but I will if I have to," she said with a smile of contentment. Then she struck her on the shoulder so hard it shattered and she met the earth with a mighty thud 300 meters below. "Night, night, miss special circumstance," she said with not the smallest hint of pity in her razor voice, and with that Lynn was swiftly thrown out of the game.


	9. Cut

Cut

Lynn had enough. There was something the city could not give her and something it couldn't take away. There was no relief in hurting Eden like that. Only more pain, regret and self-hating. Some huge part of her life was missing. And that absent feeling gnawed at her inside til she had to show it outside to make it go away. A pain that tearing others apart at the seams could not cure.

She had to do it. She went over to her box, hand carved from the first semi-happy years of her ugly days. She kept it for it's sentimental value and bridge to her past. Hikaru... Why did he leave her? Why did he have to go? I need you she thought as another name came in to her head. Cable... She though about her and Special Circumstances, the fabled mythical nightmare-come-true that killed him. It was their fault and now she could easily be called one of them. More hatred bubbled up into her veins. She had to let go...

She snatched the old blood stained knife from the trunk and called her hover board.

She rode to the top of the highest building in the Rusty Ruins. The usual spot. Anything involving the wild or of importance was done there, back in the old days that is. More past pain arose inside her to haunt her present. She pulled out her knife.

Would she do it? She paused. Zane hated her cutting. How upset would he be? She couldn't give him anymore pain. That's all she was good for. Causing pain and trouble.

Her past... She had gotten into the vulgar habit three times... as an ugly, pretty, and special. Every time Zane was the one to pull her out. Not again. She couldn't. But she had to. It hurt so much that the outside pain would feel good compared to it...

In her ugly days, after Hikaru had died and the smokies never came, she realized how alone she was. She had to be strong. She trained her self to have special senses, speed and reflexes by living in the wild by night and the city by day. During those few years was the first time she ever cut. She remembered how good it felt. Then she met Zane in the dead of winter, when the ruins were covered in snow and looked so mystical no one dared come out. You'd freeze to death. Aelita (called Hero at the time) Didn't care. One of the other talents she trained her self in was psychic arts and not to fear death. It was the night of the winter bash, but Hero was out at the ruins as always. The loneliness more than ever, she was going to cut. Then she heard a shifted in the snow behind her. It was a boy, sitting up next to her. "Hello," he smiled. Hero introduced herself. It was Zane. That night the specials found them in the ruins. That night she killed 5 specials with her bare hands and two antique Rusty swords. That night she stopped cutting for him. That night she had her first kiss. She spent every waking moment with him for the time until they became pretty. Then everything changed. He left her. Hero. Hero who saved his life twice and spent every ugly moment with him for Tally because she made it to the smoke. Brain-missing or not, she was heart broken.

Recalling this gave Aelita more pain. She truly was alone. But it's what a pain-inducing, jealous, under par, random like her deserved. Aelita drew back her knife. She had to do it. So deep it wouldn't even bleed.

Just before she thrust the blade into her flesh, a hand grabbed around her wrist, other arm around her waist and pulled her back. Aelita felt a warm breath on the nape of her neck. "What don't you feel that you have to do this?" Zane whispered and Aelita dropped the knife to her feet. She was so wrapped up in her past, she couldn't embrace the present.

"I'm so sor-" She started, knowing he knew her every thought, but Zane put a finger up to her mouth. "shhh," he said,"No need to be sorry." He turned her around and pulled up his sleeve. There were three long scars piercing the flash tattoos Aelita had convinced him the get."So deep it didn't even bleed,"He whispered so softly it might have been impossible for random ears to pick out over the winter breeze,"It felt good compared to that pain inside. You were right."

Aelita flung herself around him, feeling more pain and guilt. "Please don't do this to me," She said softly,"Don't make my mistakes. Please." Zane bent over and picked up the knife. "one last time," He said. Aelita nodded. She put her hand in his and held it tight as he ran the blade down her arm. She did the same to him in return. They winced at the pain and he pulled her to him with all his heart and kissed her,"you're not alone. I'm sorry for what I did". "No need to be sorry," She sighed and pulled him back so her. It was the most weird and intense love she had ever felt. The pain spread from her arm and sent her body into a slight pulsing shock, although it was used to the abuse. At the same time a warmth spread through her with a secure and bubbly feeling. She felt Zane's reassuring solidness as she leaned farther into him and he gripped tighter. His blood seeped into her shirt from where his arm held her in his warmth from the winter chill. She ran his fingers through his hair, letting all her pain go and fly away in the night gale. In was the strongest she had ever felt. The only person she had ever wanted so much. She loved him enough, she could die right here. Love like she'd never loved before and it mingled with the pain in a way that made her want to stay here on this Earth forever. No fear of death or not, She wanted to live forever and lever let this moment end or fade away.

As they pulled back from the oxygen-missing kiss, Aelita pulled some medspray from her pocket. They weren't looking to bleed to death tonight. Although a quick ride to heaven in Zane's arms sounded very wonderful to a girl who virtually hated her life, It was not their time to go. Zane grabbed her head and pulled her into another intense kiss. Their bloody arms held on to each other for life. And even when they let go, their souls would hold that moment forever. Dead or alive. They had let just a little more of them selves go to let a better time flow inside. Rewired their brains just a little more.


	10. Wild

Wild

Aelita batted her eyes and yawned in a breath of chilled morning air. Although the sky was cloudy, it had to be well past dawn because it was light out, 10:00 a.m. maybe. She came to awareness of feeling. She was curled up at the top of the ruins with Zane, his arms around her keeping her locked in his warmth rather than the harsh cold. She wrinkled her nose at a sudden chill of snow. It was flurrying out. She sighed and looked up at Zane. He was sleeping sitting up, arms wrapped around her. He looked so peaceful asleep. She leaned up and pecked his cheek, and lay back down on his chest, looking up into the white grey whirling sky, not quite aware of everything yet. But that was just fine she thought and let her thoughts drift to where she couldn't recall them on that somehow wonderful morning.

Zane woke up a couple minutes later. She sat up,"Ohaiyo Gozaimas."

"Mmm...,"He moaned,"English please. Don't make my brain work this early." Aelita smiled and stretched her sore muscles. Along with the familiar pain that came along they day after every hover ball game was a sharp pain in her forearm. She recalled last night, but somehow it was joyful. More like bittersweet, but even still through the pain it felt good to be able to love someone rather than let that hatred fill her again. She flung her arms around his shoulders, massaging the kinks out of his neck.

When he had finally come to a bit more of an awakened state, he was going to call the hoverboards, but Aelita pinning his wrists before he could snap."I'm not going back to bubblehead paradise just yet," She said from over his shoulder. She was dying for a cup of that bitter coffee she drank in the morning,"Come on. Let's do something special."

She jumped off the edge of the building, sliding down into her bird form. Zane jumped down after her, and hit the white-kissed ground with the pat of a pounce. Aelita squealed and sped through the forest, dodging branches and soaring over the canopy as the wind whipped her feathers. She dared a glance down at Zane. Her He growled and bounded up onto a rock high over the valley over looking a crystal blue river snaking and moving with the land in a ancient and complex dance far below. He looked so majestic with his serious expression and snow-dotted black and orange fur.

She lighted down next to him and flung her human again arms around his muscular neck. "Kitty Kat!" She said in her littlie voice, her special body looking like a porcelain doll next to the massiveness of the jungle cat. "Ugh. Don't call me that," he said in a forced annoyed tone, not able to conceal the blushing purr underneath. He drifted and stretched back in to his human shape and looked away to hide his face. It was demeaning to have your emotions shook up by simple gestures, even if they were from Aelita.

"Hmm..."Aelita sighed, stepping up to the edge of the sheered rock ledge, careful to find a sturdy stop that wouldn't fall through," To bad it didn't start snowing earlier. I wanted to go sledding," she said in a slightly disappointed tone. "Sledding?"Zane said in a I-can't-believe-you-just-considered-that tone of voice,"That's not very bubbly." "It is the way I do it,"She said with a smile that peaked Zane's interest,"Oh well. I have something to do that you'll think is super bubbly."

She snapped her fingers and two hoverboards begged at her ankles like a couple of lost puppies. They hopped on and rode up to another cliff overlook.

"What would you give this view, Zane-la. For old time's sake." Aelita said and she closed her eyes and let her other senses take in the experience. Zane looked up. He could see the river, the sea, the mountains, the forest, the ruins, and the city laid out before him on a glistening silver platter. It made him feel small yet invigorated at the same time. "A whole Helen," He said finally after letting each one of his senses take in the sight individually as much they could in a glance. "Helens? You really haven't changed inside have you?" Aelita said. Zane looked a little upset at this remark. No matter how hard he tried it seemed he couldn't push forward, not even for her. Maybe he was just some random. Maybe Tally was right. "Don't be so sad," Aelita said quickly. She had taken him here to make him feel better, not worse,"I think it's totally bubbly. You should be proud. It takes a strong person to stay fixed in what they believe in like that through three brain rewirings and six years."

How was Aelita so good at making him out to be a better person than he was? Maybe Tally was wrong and she was right. Who was he to believe? Aelita who saved his life twice, saved him from himself in ugly days, still loved him after he deserted her in pretty days, saved him in Diego, rewired his brain after it was melted, and continued to keep him from drowning in his own memories? Or Tally, The self-reliant person who saved him in the Pretty days and helped him escape, but left him to die in Diego so she could be a special and go on living with the thought that she didn't need randoms like him?

Aelita paced over to the edge,"On a lighter note, you're gonna have to find something way more bubbly than helens to measure this ride in." She pointed down to a steel track the wormed down the mountain and through the forest and ruins that he had over looked before."You remember this from ugly days don't you? I got two words for you: Roller coaster."

With that, she jumped off the edge lying flat on her hoverboard and raced down the first of many steep drops of the ride with an ear splitting squeal of delight. Zane plummeted after her.


	11. Ride

Ride

Aelita flew down the 90 degree drop, gaining speed with every wisp of wind shooting past her face. The track curved down between two hills and made a half circle turn around the third before straightening out for miles to the other end of the ruins. A second later an explosive sound echoed and reechoed eerily and ear splitingly loud into the ears of every creature with in thousands of acres.

Zane couldn't see Aelita. He thought she had lost control and crashed. Every thought of what could have gone wrong was whirling through his head like an angry storm. He urged his board forward, no longer caring about his own safety, and sped down the tracks as fast as he could go. He had to find her.

Suddenly, he heard a scream and laughter coming from the distant mist veiled other side of the ruins. It wasn't a hurt scream or a scared scream. It was happy. Replaying the sound in his head, his special senses discerned Aelita's voice, and strained for the words,"Mach one! Mach one!". What was that supposed to mean? At least she was safe.

Zane was still subcontiously urging his board forward when the track straightened out. Before he could stop the board rushed forward like there was no longer any resistance. The wind stung his face almost to involuntary forced tears. By the time he had managed to get a scream of terror from his mouth, he was dipping and diving with the ruins again. He had shot through at 343 meters a second..Then it hit him. The speed. Mach one. The boom. He had been going at the speed of sound!

Aelita heard the boom and a scream and felt the ruins shake under the shock and tension. "Can't have Zane catching up to me on his first run, can we!" She smiled and pushed her board down the track, urging it to it's limits.

Zane felt a dip and a rise in the track and before he knew it he was free flying through the air, leaving only his momentum to carry him to the other side of the tracks, catching them upside down. He turned over and sped down the tracks further when something caught his arm. Before he could grasp reality, there was a screech of metal and sparks every where from where his board was skimming the steel tracks. He halted abruptly, heart ready to beat up out of his chest. Seeing that he was going to fast to notice or head her warning to stop, Aelita had jumped on to his board, now traveling just under mach speed, and stopped it in it's tracks. There were advantages to being special sometimes.

Zane was still to stunned to say anything. Aelita, who was standing on his board with him, threw her arms around his neck, laughing her head off at his price less expression.


	12. Crush

Crush

She was back in the city. Here she was Lynn. She used to love it when people called her that. Now it was nothing more than a tool to label her something she wasn't.

Lynn stared into her closet. Another Bash. Nothing important, but what else better did she have to do with her time, fame, and fortune? Open to every one with a face rank of 5,00 or higher, half the people wouldn't come, and it's only purpose was to get drunk and live like a bubble-head. It had only been four years and people were forgetting what the mind rain was and what it had stood for.

Lynn sighed and scanned the immense depths of her closet for something to wear. "semiformal", she said, wondering what to do,"SEMI-formal. God, who was the retard who came up with that?" Formal was fine. but semi-formal opened up the doors to a whole new world of pain. For guys it was bad enough with a million different kinds of slacks, pants and and sweater combos. But girls. Oh, for girls you could haven't even scratched the surface with the number of dresses and shoes alone and it would take DAYS to ramble on about them alone. To top it all of, pretty people filled Lynn with feeling she didn't even want to discuss. She was pretty, but not the pretty that filled you with desire and love at first sight. She had he inhuman perfection superiority look going that made you want to bow down... or get killed... She liked herself that way and wouldn't trade it for any other looks in the world. Zane loved her the way she was and that's all that matters. He never wanted her to get any surge in the first place. She was so glad she didn't drink, because right now a hang over would just make this head ache worse.

Then her eyes fixed on a distant memory. There is was. That dress. From her ugly days. It was a gorgeous dress, but the memories it brought back were bitter sweet. She lay back on her bed and let her memories fill her.

It was the winter. Hero (Lynn/Aelita's name given to her by her step mother, used during her littlie, ugly, and pretty days) was in her ugly days. It was the winter bash, where everyone had fun. Uglies partied and enjoyed themselves too, but no pretties seemed to remember the good times. Only the dreaded long, lifeless stares out the window at New Pretty Town.

Hero was not one of those uglies. She wasn't planning on going to the bash, but dressed for it anyway as to not be conspicuous. She re-dyed her hair black with the calligraphy ink as to bring out it's full color. She put on blood red lip stick, cherry flavored to cure the hunger pangs, and put on black kohl eye liner protect her from bright light. It was winter but she wore a sleeveless dress, black and silken and draped down to just above her knees. She tied scarves just above her elbows that flowed with grace down over her forearms, hiding her scars in their soft shadow. For the finishing touch, she put on a pair of platform shoes, lace up leather boots that shielded her shins. She was ready for the wild.

She took off her interface ring and tied it to a cleaning robot that would wander the party all night. She climbed out her window into the cool night darkness, pitch black with the early setting of the sun, and swayed with the icy wind, letting her dress camouflage her in the shadows. She got on her hover board and made her way to the Rusty Ruins.

Hero perched on top of the tallest building in the ruins. From what she remembered, it was called a skyscraper. That was a good name for it, they way it's steel arm seemed to stretch up into the sky and catch the clouds in it's iron grasp. She stared off into the distance in awe at the scenery. The ruins were covered in snow and the moonlight danced off it's crystal surface like her nonna's good china.

"Beautiful, huh?" Hero jumped, startled at the voice heard over the hushing sounds of the snowy night's wind. It was a boy's voice, and she looked down to she the familiar face of an ugly aged boy, sitting on a ledge about five yards under her feet. He was one of the people you saw around and always meant to stop and say something to but never did. One of those admired from a far visual relationships every girl had but usually turned out to be nothing more than a daydream. This one happened to be guy-next-to-the-soccer-field and guy-from-two-seats-behind-in-history. Her only contact had been a smile, a wave, a nod, two questions when she was late for class, and some cheering on the side lines when she scored the game winning goal.

He smiled and motioned for her to sit next to him. Hero jumped down with her wild trained grace and hardly made a sound as she swung her feet over the ledge next to him. "Zane", he said holding out his hand. "Hero", She shook it and leaned back to take in the feeling of the night.

After a few minutes, Zane couldn't bare to hold in his curiosity and broke the awkward silence,"Why aren't you at the bash?" Hero opened her eyes and let the tranquility of the wild fade and her at ease look fade with it. "The same reason you aren't", she said in a nonchalant way, a side ways matter of fact cutting straight to him through the moonlight. That's what he liked about her. She was quiet and kept her mouth shut, but spoke when she needed to. She chose her words carefully and captivated everyone. She was always calm with a just let time take care of it attitude and was never rushing anything. She was perfect. That's why he stopped every day to watch her on the soccer field. That's why he kept the pen she loaned him six months ago in the penmanship segment of history.

To him, she was perfect the way she was and if he could tell let her know in some way that she didn't need the surge to be that perfect person he admired, he would. Even without the exaggerated colors and metallic flecks, her eyes were wonderful. Like pools of silver blue water shining in the moonlight, they seemed to say,"You're the only one iI want to see right now, I'm listening only to you". He felt himself blush the most ferocious shade of red and was all the more thankful his face was silhouetted in the pale light. He was thinking like a littlie with a crush. Crush. That was it. Croy had hit the nail on the head when he caught him staring at her that day and her engraved pen in his room. Crush.

Hero sighed and looked away. Why did she keep looking at him like that? Like he was the only person in the world? Because to her he was the only person in the world who was just like she had dreamed of. She didn't look at him and say "nice" like her ugly friends. No. She couldn't be that simple. That normal. She saw him and said "this is it" "this is him". Even most pretties didn't think that way. She couldn't have him. He probably didn't even know she existed before tonight and would forget her tomorrow. She looked back at her memory of him. He was the only one she trusted for her homework. He was the one she picked out the second she looked at the dozens of people in the crowd at a soccer match and found herself play better with him there, just to make him see her. He was the one who had her good hand carved pen and never gave it back. But that was okay because there was no one else in the world she would want to have it. She had always wanted to talk to him, and here he was, and she was brain-missing with nothing to say. How could he like her anyway? You can't love someone you don't know exists. She felt crushed. Crush. That was the word all her friends used to describe this feeling. But not her. How could she, Miss voted most independent, catch this sickness? And the pain that came with knowing he probably never even noticed her was like a punch to the gut. Crushed. Who ever came up with that term certainly knew what they were talking about. How could this happen to her?

Zane felt his stomach lurch. He couldn't spend the rest of his life knowing that he was alone with his crush on the most romantic moonlit night and hadn't made a move. He had to do something. He decided that if he was ever going to be hurt by someone for love, he wanted it to be her. He took a deep breath and slipped his and around hers and held it tightly. She squeezed back and sat up against him. He was blushed again. He had to say something. Why not what he had always thought? "I think you're beautiful the way you are", he whispered softly and cuffed her hair behind her ears, daring a glance at those captivating eyes. Like always, he was lost. "No", she she said softly, letting the wind carry her voice to his ears,"I'm ugly. But you... You're..." She was going to say something but stopped. "You're perfect," Zane finished, catching her in his words. He softly ran his finger up her arm and traced her scars. She pulled her arm away, embarrassed. Every muscle in his body told him to let her go, except for one. That one feeling in his conscience that screamed to him and told him to hold her. Hold her like he had always wanted and never let her go. So he did.

Hero cried. She put her arms around his neck, her head on his chest and Hero cried. She cried for every reason she could think of. Sadness that nonno died. That she wanted her real family. That she didn't have a lot of friends, Because she hated her step family. Because Hikaru had died. Because her world was falling apart and that the only thing left that seemed solid was Zane. And before she knew it, Zane was crying, too.

He put his head against hers and looked in to her Perfect, watery eyes. He pushed away the tears with his thumbs and grabbed her forearms again. "Don't ever do this," He said, his voice cracking with sobs,"Because you can't let me live if you're gone".

He kissed her and held her close. He kissed her again and again and held her like the world depended on it. His world did. Hero felt breath-missing and bruised, but she let him, because it felt so good to be loved and to be held by someone other than her nonna. She relaxed and lost herself in his loving arms. And for the first time in a long time she felt safety, love, and hope that everything would turn out alright.

Lynn sat up with the same dorky grin painted on her face as she did on her way home that fateful night, riding double board in Zane's arms. She could still remember leaning together as one through those redundantly familiar turns so many times over.

Lynn stepped out on to her balcony, and stared out to the forest and ruins. That's when she saw it. The unmistakeable glow of safety sparklers from the top of the tallest building in the ruins. Her heart skipped a few beats with her excitement.

"Ping Za-"She stopped,"Kairo. Ping Kairo. You'd better get over here. Now."


	13. Old Friends

Old Friends

Lynn rushed to her closet and hastily threw on her sneak suit. The wonderful material was welcomed to her flesh like an old friend. She had so many memories in this suit. The best part was, even though she had city washed it it still smelled of the wild she used to embrace every morning.

She jumped up to the safety railing on her balcony and a few seconds later Kairo came up to her window. Some how he had know to wear his sneak suit. "After you, princess," He smiled and lifted her up onto the board. "No time to be romantic", Lynn said, stressing urgency in her voice as she wrapped her arms around his waist,"Tallest tower in the ruins. Stat." She looked up at the tower. The sparklers were just about to blink out. They wouldn't wait very long. "oh, am I your taxi now", Kairo rolled his eyes. "JUST GO!" She ordered and took the liberty of starting the board up again herself.

They dipped and dove through New Prettytown, Ugliville, Crumbliville, and the factory belt, half expecting to see the disgustingly yellow buildings of Special Circumstances over the hill but didn't. They shot out from between two buildings and were soon out away from the city grid. They lost altitude and free fell for a moment before the roar of lifter fans rang in their ears. Just like the old days. The fans were white hot when they reached the ruins. They cut off once they found some metal, once again giving them the edge of silence.

Zane and Aelita stepped off their board just above the level the sparkler lighter were on. Aelita held a finger to her lips and pressed her hands down onto the roof of the building. She Stopped breathing and let her hands use the vibrations to discern sound and let her skintenna carry it to Zane.

One boy and one girl. "God", the girl said rather annoyed,"Now I know why I don't miss the city. All those bubbleheads can't look out their window for a second? And the uglies. Sure they can stare at New Prettytown all day but never a glance at the ruins! Damn Randoms." "Come on," the boy said,"Give them a chance. You remember how long it took you to get to the ruins as an ugly, don't you? And it's only been ten minutes. We have no place else to crash anyways."

Aelita picked her hand up off the roof. "Now", she sighed into the skintenna. They pounced down. The other two people also had sneak suits, but all four could feel each other's gaze beating into their skulls. Aelita and Zane pulled off their hoods of their suits, the other two characters returning the favor.

Zane and Aelita gasped. It was them. Them as in the ones they had searched four years for. Tally and David. THE Tally and David. They all stood there silent and stunned for what none could judge as minutes or seconds.

Tally was the first to break the silence. "Zane?" She just couldn't help saying. The words words flowed out of her mouth with out her telling them too, dripping with honey. It was crazy. SHE was crazy. He was dead after all. She watched him die. Well... Almost, for she couldn't bare to see him go. But some how...

"Yes", Zane said,"The world may know us as Kairo and Lynn but I believe you know us better as Zane and Aelita." Tally couldn't take her eyes off of him. It was surreal. This had to be someone's idea of a bad joke. But it wasn't. She could tell it WAS him. She just knew. Here he was. Alive. Not just alive. Special. And he looked just like she had always imagined. But something wasn't there when she looked in his eyes. It was like a friend had told her long ago as an ugly. She looked at him and saw "now" and thought "nice". When she looked at David she felt a future full of happiness and love flash before her eyes. A future with him. She looked at him and thought "this is it" "this is forever".

She looked back at Zane this is what she had needed all along. To face her future with her past and to meet half way. This is what she had needed all along to move on. To know she had made the right choice. And when she looked at him, his expression said the same thing. That he had needed to know for sure that Aelita was right. That They were made for each other. They were. Tally got that bitter sweet feeling that this was the unspoken break up. And that he was very sure about this. Yea, it hurt. And she wanted to be upset, But she couldn't bring herself to it. She couldn't help feeling more happy and relieved then depressed. And for that she felt more guilty then leaving him to die.

She was brought back to reality by the sounds of David's choking sobs. "Aelita..."He sighed in time with his breath,"It's really you." He threw his arms around her. All these years he had searched. To bring her back to the wild with his family. THEIR family. Here she was now. Safe in his arms. His sister.

Tally felt something like betrayal rise up inside her. Was this one of his girlfriends before her that Pretties had spread rumors about? He had never mentioned Aelita to her.

"How has my little sister been all these years?" David asked. "Three minutes is not long enough to make me your 'little' sister," Aelita giggled,"But okay all the same. You know Zane would never let me get hurt. Besides. I'm Special now." She may look special but she was the same fragile twin he had never truly known but always loved in his heart. And that's why he worried. No matter how many brain surges she got, she would still be her. Her eyes had kept her crystal silver blue and that distant stare that haunted his dreams. The essence of her wild and crazy self, his opposite, that nothing could ever take away. Some things couldn't change. Just like Tally. Maybe that's why he loved her. It's said that twins are the other half of you, and the same is true for lovers. He looked at Aelita and Tally and saw the same longing for freedom rasping in their eyes. The same person, never destined to meet because no two people could ever be the same. But destiny had made a mistake for him and that was just fine.

Tally let out a sigh of mixed relief and more shock. This wasn't David's lover. She still held that title. But even more insane, this was his sister. TWIN sister. Sent off to live in the city at birth. To originally be the test of the pretty cure. But she was special before the surge. Tally could feel it in her bones. She'd find out later. Right now, she just took in the best night she'd had since...

"I think we have some catching up to do," David broke her thoughts,"All of us". So they sat down, setting their sneak suits to mimic some decent clothes. They went over the past years. The cities each of the two couples had brought the mind rain to. The people they met. Things they destroyed. The good times. The bad. But each couple held something back... and the feeling of a half truth hung heavy under lying the joys of reunion.

David let out a yawn. Unlike his Special friends here, he needed to sleep and he had already skipped a nights for more reasons than one. Aelita's ears pricked up and caught the sounds of lifter fans in the distance. She bounded up on to the roof and looked of into the horizon sprinkled with the constellations of the winter sky. The bodies may have had their heat signatures hidden by sneak suits, but their hover boards showed up white hot under the infrared. "Expecting anyone?" She called back down to Tally and David.

"Yea,"Tally yelled back, although she really didn't need to because her skintenna had already synced up with Aelita's and Zane's,"Shay-la and Fausto. The others didn't bother to come. Who would've guessed we'd see you here? After all, you both were deemed dead years ago." "But we never gave up looking,"David said, still over joyed with the surreal discovery that she WAS alive,"We heard stories of specials named Hero and Zane bringing the mind rain to cities all over the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe. We thought, because you were so famous and no one really wanted to believe you two could have ever been dead, that it was just some urban legend spread by some uglies. So we went out to find you and never did. Here was our next stop to make sure that the cities were okay with the mind rain, although we weren't suspecting anything here because of our very trust worthy care takers. But something told us to come any way and what do you know!"

About five minutes later, the roar of hover fans subsided and the presence of two more figures was present in the room. Aelita's and Zane's skintenna synced with the clad persons within seconds of their arrival and they could here the breathing through the intimacy of the network. The silhouettes removed their hoods revealing the faces of Shay and Fausto. "Hey," They said nodding their heads to Tally and David.

Then Shay stopped at Aelita. "Hero?" A smile pressed it's way on to her face as she nodded yes to shay. "Oh my god. OH MY GOD!" She screamed," I haven't seen you in forever. I thought you were... you know... Dead." Aelita laughed,' I've been getting that a lot lately. But you mean to tell me you can't recognize him?" She pointed to Zane and he gave his most bubbly crim-style smile. "Come on. he was a Crim." "I'm thinking," Shay said like she was a pretty being pushed out the door before she was done her make up,"But the only people we hung out with are smokies or cutters by now except Zane and he's- No. No way. NOW I don't believe you. That's not Zane. He's pushing up Daisies. I had to stop Tally from blowing up the world or at least killing herself. No way was Zane dying a dream." "Believe it Shay-la." He said and the way he glanced at them there was no denying that it was him. Shay screamed and Fausto was to stunned to do anything but shake his head.

"Hero, girl-"Shay started but Aelita cut her off, her brain about ready to explode from over-processing,"Now that's another thing. I can't have Zane, David, and Tally calling me Aelita, Shay, Fausto and the other former Crims and Smokies calling me Hero, and the rest of the world calling me Lynn while at the same time switching from speaking in Japanese to English every ten seconds, so make my life easy and just go with Lynn." Zane laughed,'Yea. I can't have the world running after me asking what it's like to kiss Tally Youngblood so PLEASE remember to call me Kairo once we're in the city."

Tally looked at Zane. Shay looked at David. Zane was back, could she finally have David? That was stupid. She was over him. she had some one else now... Fausto put his arms around Shay from behind and she kissed his cheek. Everyone stared.

"Since when are we so friendly, Shay-la?" Tally teased. "Oh, shut up," Shay rolled her eyes,"I'm not as bad as you and lover boy over there." David was almost passed out on Tally's lap as she ran her fingers through his soft brown hair. "Touche," Tally said laughing as she shook David awake. "Can we all crash at your place? I haven't slept in a real bed in ages." The others agreed. "My place?"Zane suggested. "Uh...no," Lynn objected,"Personally I think they'd be more at hope in mine."


	14. Surfing

Surfing

Tally, David, Shay, and Fausto woke up in their tree hammocks a story off the ground to the sweet smell of breakfast. They climbed down groggily awakening, and helped themselves to a couple of heaping plates of food to chow down. Shay, Fausto, and Zane that is. Lynn and Tally watched in disgust as the city infected their ravenous friends with it's mind-numbing powers to fill you up. David just stared with an unreadable expression vividly written across his scraped, pale face, making his scar more pronounced as he scrunched his brow.

"Why aren't you eating?" Shay asked curiously, although with not much concern in her voice,"I know you don't starve yourselves anymore." "Really Shay-la!" Tally rasped angrily back at her,"I don't trust anything out of this city. Any city." "Thank you, Tally!" Lynn said with a relieved expression pressing on to her tattooed face. "Really," Zane said,"I think you two are so paranoid sometimes." David sighed and nodded in agreement as he graciously helped himself too a plate of city food. Deep down, he was just happy with the fact that he didn't have to cook this morning. Lynn made a plate of her homemade spetzel (little Hungarian dumplings) and green tea for her and Tally.

They laughed and talked just like they had never been apart. it was like they had never been apart, even for Tally and Lynn who had never really know each other but a couple bump-intos in their most distant Ugly days. Every one seemed to notice their resemblance, like they were the same person almost. Same personality. Same flaws and week spots. Same face almost, although if that was the work of two conformitqing surges, matching flash tattoos, and several facial reconstructions no one could tell. Same train of thought - the forceful, clueless, independent, charismatic leadership that echoed in their every thought, word and action. The same taste in guys. The same bravery that couldn't think twice about giving their life to some one else. That fearlessness that had one fatal flaw: the city. Not even death. Just the city.

Tally looked down at Lynn's arms as she scanned her surroundings and stopped cold. Through the pulsing flash tattoos constructed of intricate patterns of Celtic swirls and Japanese kanji, scars sheered the lovely designs. Lynn caught Tally staring and looked down at the swirling pool of water upon which her genetically modified lily pad seat was resting as it pulsed with the ripples silently. Tally pointed to her own scars with her eyes and met Lynn's flushed gave again as if to say, "It's alright. I do it too."

Zane and David caught this gesture, and, unlike Shay and Fausto, could read every word written on their meant-to-be-private gaze. Zane pulled down the sleeves on his black denim jacket further, completely concealing the sorry sins he had committed in her long absence. Tally didn't need to know. Yet. David looked down, biting his lip almost to the point of puncturing it's fragile, un-specialized rose red flesh. He still couldn't get over that. tally in pain was torture enough. tally in pain due to her own purposeful accord made his skin crawl and filled him with many other gruesome feelings he did not ever want to discuss.

Shay was feeling the pain of the awkward silence although she wasn't sure what for."So..."She started, in attempt to get her and Fausto back inside the loop rather than expel the pain, which she managed to do both in the process,"What's on today's agenda?" A toothy smile just like Tally's sprawled across Lynn's anxious face.

"Surfing?" David croaked, a hint of fear in his voice barely perceptible as he fought to keep in back, but of course the special's ears caught it and Shay sneered as he continued,"You're taking us Mag-Lev surfing?" "We could do this at home!" Shay groaned with boredom, but let Lynn continue beings as she had no bright ideas for what to do herself. "No," Lynn said, clearly aggravated although she tried not to let it show. It's alright. she knew they'd have a blast,"This city has the fastest trains in the world. Besides. Who would teach you?" David swallowed hard and dared a glance at Zane. he was telling her no in an inconspicuous manner, and would not have been caught had David not been watching their every move since he had arrived. They had an uncanny way with words and imperceptible conversation. Or rather, a way WITHOUT them. They only spoke out loud for the benefit of their visitors. Lynn nodded her eyes only and gave a crooked smile meant to ease his worry before tearing her gaze away from him.

"But isn't that illegal?" Fausto said, trying ever so desperately to worm his way out of this stunt. Tally and Lynn were determined not to let him off the hook so easy. "So?" Tally and Lynn said together, voices anxious to get on with it. the train would be here in less than 15 minutes. "Never stopped us before," Tally finished with a sly grin. SHE was excited at least. Anything requiring little or no planning, speed fear, and a rush of iciness was right up her alley.

"Let's review," Lynn said in her cheap teacher voice imitation,"When I say go, you drop down Go as fast as possible, and use the magnetic field around the train to help give you a boost. Don't stop no matter what. Do you hear me? No matter what. Lean over until you are level with the top and jump on. make sure you get on before we round the bend and the train straightens out again or your a goner. The decapitation warnings?" "Yellow means duck. Red means lay down flat or you'll lose your head," The others moaned the forcibly memorized directions.

Lynn lead them up to the air vent above the steel tracks. a low roar grew and grew into an ear splitting screech as an exhilarating rush as Doppler effected air violently thrashed their hair around their faces. "Now!" Lynn blood-curtailing scream was barely audible over the train speeding below. Lynn and Tally dropped down first followed by their reluctant and slightly scared posy of Zane, David, Shay, and Fausto.

It was her first run, but Tally was looking like an old pro at this. "Doing great", Lynn said encouraging Tally. She lay down flat on her board and urged it to it's physical limits, letting it seep more power off the momentum of the bullet train. "Lots of practice,' She replied being careful to copy Lynn's movements exactly as she slipped through the turbulence of battered air whipping by. She took a deep breath and released the board carefully, just as Lynn had done. Her crash bracelets caught the smooth aerodynamic surface of the front car with a thud, not to mention almost jerking her arms right out of their sockets.

Tally watched with her wide, black eyes as Lynn shut off the magnets in her bracelet one by one and slipped them over her ankles before reactivating them. The only thing keeping her from falling off and splattering all over the ground bolting past at unfathomable speeds below. "I think your surge messed with your brain a bit more than mine did to say it rather lightly," Tally criticized as Lynn stood up against the wrestling force of the winds."Oh it did. Just not in the way you think,"she smirked in a way that made Tally wonder. She shrugged and compromised to ask later. Right now she had to prove herself. She stopped breathing to brace herself for the force and stood up, too.

"Lynn..." She said awestricken with wonder as she dared so stand on the tips of her toes at the front of the rain, arms out stretched. "I'm flying." Lynn smiled and relaxed her tenseness as she inhaled the morning with her arms out as well. Then some little recess in her mind jolted her awake. Her eyes grew wide as she shrieked,"Get Down!" Tally was thrown to the top of the train. Lynn bolted herself down and shot the yellow flashlight back down the train to warn the others. There were little more than seconds to spare as the overhead flickered overhead.

David was too stunned to do anything. He was at the back of the train almost. It straightened out and he was straining off the momentum of the very last car as the train finished rounding the bend. How was he supposed to get on? "Need some help?" David flicked his head up, startled to see Zane next to him. Great. Just what he needed. To embarrass himself in front of HIM. He sighed. well how much worse could it get? Zane carefully instructed him on how to board the train, although it could have been better. they were racing the clock though as the train picked up speed so his lessons were with a quickness. they bolted down and sat with the cool wind whipping in their hair as they stared down the tracks.

Zane saw how embarrassed David was and couldn't help letting out a chuckle,"It's alright. Your doing fine." "Stop trying to make me feel better. It's not working out well." David snapped and turned away. He was going to say more but his better judgment went against that. "Seriously," Zane persisted," You're doing better than me on my first run. I had to go doubles with Lynn and I still screwed up. Not to mention almost getting the both of us crushed by a steel train." David was still a little pissed. "I thought you were supposedly 'protecting' my sister. Not killing her." Zane looked upset. no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get on his good side. But really, did he expect any different? He did steal Tally from him... and now he thought he had the right to be with his sister? But still, he wasn't letting a good chance to prove himself go.

"That's where the ALMOST crushed part comes in," Zane pulled off his shirt, reveling a scar that ran from the top of his should and traced the edge of his shoulder blade halfway down his back,"My arm got caught in the tracks as the train went over when I threw Lynn out of the way. I had my entire arm and shoulder reconstructed." That struck a cord inside David. Why was he so mad at this boy? He loved Lynn so much... Even her strange ways and cold exterior weren't enough to hold him back. He new her inside. He knew her better than he did. his own sister... Zane was ready at any given second to throw away his life for her... Besides. Anyone who could possibly love Tally for who she really was -is- couldn't be all that bad.

"We are all born fearing death. Tally and Lynn are the only ones I know that have over come that. it makes me feel... weak. That I'm not good enough for someone as strong as her. That I put too mush of my burden for her to carry."Zane said, not really wanting to look David in the eye. David could see very clearly where he was going with this. He felt the exact same thing when he looked into Tally's pained yet strong eyes. But he had learned to look at it in another light...

"But I think thats why they love us,' he reassured Zane,"We save them from the world around them... from themselves... Because when you don't fear the things that can hurt you, thats when you end up hurt the worst." Zane nodded in agreement. That seemed right. Weather it was a way to make himself feel better about what he'd put on her or the plane truth, he liked that. He pulled david down as the overpass shot overhead.

Shay slid trough the turbulence and pounced down onto the roof on all fours, looking like Bastet, the cat goddess with her mystical and silent grace. She hid her fear from her face, draining it of all emotion to hide it from the world, almost succeeding to hide it so deep within her self that she could forget it was there. almost... but not quite. fausto pulled up next to her just as they rounded the bend. 'How do you like this?" Shay asked. 'Loving every minute of it, Shay-La!" She could still hear his muffled sarcasm over the roar of the wind and laughed. She watched wide-eyed and intent as tally and Lynn stood up. She wasn't going to be out done by those two. She hastily strapped her crash bracelets to her feet and stood up. "Woah," She wobbled and Fausto put his arms around her to steady them both.

He set his chin on her shoulder and wind whip her hair and her flash tattoos spiral rapidly across her face. he closed his eyes and felt at peace. Every thought that had just crossed Shay's mind vanished as all of her senses strained to take in the moment of his soft breath on her skin. Her muscles relaxed and went back to a normal stress, only to tense up again at the feeling of Fausto's nose and lips tracing the outline of her bones under her skin. Slowly, he relaxed too and his arms held her no longer for balance, but because he wanted to out of love. Love. When exactly did he start loving Shay? When did he start thinking his name only meant something off her lips? That he would throw himself off a cliff just to see those razor fangs in a smile? It didn't matter because right now, they were the only people on earth and timed seemed to stand still. He opened his eyes to a softly blinking yellow light. He pulled Shay down into his lap and kissed her icy cool lips in the subtle darkness of the overpass. "I love you," He whispered softly in her ear as he pushed back a few of the straying locks of her silken black hair.

They all drifted off the back of the train at the turn after the red decapitation warning. "What do you think?" Lynn said, the rush of the experience making her words clear and as sharp as knives in the cool air of a the bitter winter morning,"There's another train leaving the station in twenty minutes. "Damn right we're going again!" Tally cheered. "Anyone-"Lynn started but david cut her off,"HELL NO!" He said, mind made up and not changing. By the looks on the faces of Zane, Shay, and Fausto, it appears he spoke for the others also. "Whatever," Tally said nonchalantly and she and Lynn raced back to the station for another go.


	15. Pimp Me Out

Pimp Me Out

They all arrived back in Lynn's apartment at 5:00 in the afternoon. David was hit hard, but the specials weren't the slightest bit phased by their earlier exploits and jumped right on into the next event of the list. "Relax," Zane said,"I've already got it covered. We're going to some random bash with Hiro, Aya, Frizz, Eden, and Jai. After all it's not a visit to the city without a good bash." Shay, fausto, and Zane seemed rather excited and gave Lynn and Tally intrigued looks. They just sighed, but had to agree. Zane was right and they couldn't bail on the others. No matter how much they hated the main purposes of a bash: lots of people, the city, and absolute bubble headedness. David was rather impartial to the idea. although he hated the city, he had never been to a bash before. There was the Thousand faces Party, but that really didn't count because he and Tally ditched in the first five minutes.

"They'll all be here in a few minutes. we'll meet up at the fountain in the pleasure gardens. You know the one, right Lynn?" Zane questioned and she nodded her head yes. Tally could almost feel her eyes flush green at the thought of Zane and Lynn in the gardens together... alone. Her thoughts shattered as David hugged her good-bye and the guys left for Zane's place.

Lynn sighed as she opened her immense stretch of closet. Shay's jaw dropped as she looked at the vast selection of every shade and style of clothing from A to Israel. "Knock yourself out," Lynn gave a sarcastic smirk and rolled her eyes at how bubble headed her reaction was,"I don't wear any of that crap anyway. Not my style." Shay didn't even respond. She just threw on dress after dress, outfit after outfit of colorful and exotic clothes.

"Got anything else?" Tally said, rather disgusted at the selection before her. Lynn let out a chuckle,"Did you not listen? I don't wear any of that. Black, mostly." She opened up another broad expanse of closet with a heaving sigh."I hope this will suffice."

"God what'd we get ourselves into?" Tally grumbled. This was not her element. Lynn felt the same wave of regret wash through her blood. "And you wondered why I missed the wild," she groaned. "No," Tally responded rather matter of fact,"I really didn't". Lynn laughed at that and flipped through her closet unenthusiastically. Finally, the gave and put on a each put on a black dress. tally wore heels and Lynn threw on some lace up platforms. They wound black hover ball brace tape around their forearms from their wrists to just bellow their elbows to hide the scars. The proceeded to but on heavy make up -black eye liner, lots of mascara and eye shadow, and blood red lipstick- that clashed drastically with their pale white skin. Lynn let her long, jet black hair out of its two signature draping pigtails and let it hand like a masking curtain down to her waist, bangs covering the left half of her face.

Tally had just finished the last touches on her "spiffy" eyeliner as Shay-la had put it When aya, eden, and Jai arrived. They screamed,"TALLY! SHAY!" they almost couldn't contain them selves. but, they managed to take a deep breath and slow down just a tad bit before rambling on about the past year to them in Japanese. Lucky for Tally and Shay, they had decided to put some effort into to learning Japanese in their down time. They were able to comprehend just enough to know what to say and recognize the proper intervals in which they should say it.

"Anyways,"Eden said, talking in English now,"What's up with those fashion missing clothes?" Lynn glared," The third most famous girl in the city is a trend setter and it's virtually impossible for the to be fashion-missing." They all ignored her. "Make over montage!" Aya squealed. "Hell no!" Lynn yelled back sternly. 'you're not touching me either," Tally agreed, snapping her fingers in a Z formation to play up the moment. They laughed and drug Shay away to preform who knows what devious tortures to her.

When they were done, Shay stepped out looking quite a bit more gorgeous than expected. She did the cat walk to show off the white smart matter dress with colorful flowers blooming and dying as the petals swirled around with her movements. she had a ton on silver bangles decorating her wrists that clanked with her white pump heels when she walked.

Lynn sighed in defeat. "Let's get this over with before I have a mental lapse," Tally moaned and they all left for the bash.


End file.
